When I disagree with the data: I will nitpick every last detail of methodology,
any cross-corroboration is an anecdote, suddenly I demand a-priori levels of
justification. All science is flawed anyways, it's not like mathematics, you
can't get absolute certainty, so why bother? You're always going to be making
base assumptions that can be challenged, you're necessarily going to abstract
out the territory, the map is flawed.
When I agree with the data: I will boast about the victories of science and
empiricism, we found the perfect set of natural abstractions that are necessary
and sufficient to map out the territory that carve at the joints of the
problem, any concern about assumptions is rebutted with generic "Well, we're
just pragmatists; we're not perfect, but clearly we're converging on the right
direction! You're clearly someone who just wants to nitpick and not get any
work done."
My experience with certain hackernews commenters in a nutshell.
This reminds me of a time in COVID-health response when certain scientists said their evidence was real evidence and yours was not.
"There's no evidence to prove xyz" then they would say, as your evidence was never as rigorous as theirs. And since they were proclaimed to be the only authorized scientists in the room, by authority of big governing bodies, they were right.
So people will see whatever evidence they want, and whine and complain to dig into their side as tribalistic creatures.
When I agree with the data: I will boast about the victories of science and empiricism, we found the perfect set of natural abstractions that are necessary and sufficient to map out the territory that carve at the joints of the problem, any concern about assumptions is rebutted with generic "Well, we're just pragmatists; we're not perfect, but clearly we're converging on the right direction! You're clearly someone who just wants to nitpick and not get any work done."
My experience with certain hackernews commenters in a nutshell.